The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, places a heavy load on the GPU when paired with the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT. The measured data reveals a system that delivers playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but struggles to maintain fluid motion at 4K, particularly with the highest graphical presets. The Ryzen 7 9700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, provides ample processing headroom, but the RX 5700 XT's 8 GB of VRAM and RDNA 1.0 architecture become the limiting factors as resolution and settings scale.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is steep and clearly illustrates the GPU-bound nature of this title. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 92.4 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, that average falls to 61.9 FPS, a significant reduction of roughly 33%. Pushing further to 3840x2160, the average plummets to 35 FPS, which is a 62% decrease from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is a textbook example of a system where the graphics card, not the processor, is the primary constraint.

The trend is consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 141.3 FPS at 1080p to 93.8 FPS at 1440p and finally to 48.1 FPS at 4K. The gap between Low and Ultra settings also widens considerably at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 70.1 FPS, but at 4K, that difference narrows to 24.4 FPS. This indicates that at 4K, even the lowest settings cannot escape the GPU's performance ceiling, as the absolute frame rates remain modest. The data strongly suggests that the RX 5700 XT's raw compute power is the bottleneck, with the Ryzen 7 9700X's capabilities far exceeding the demands of the game at these resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand database of tested CPU and GPU combinations for The Technomancer, this pairing sits at rank 1267 out of 1656 total combos. This places it in the lower half of all tested systems, a ranking that might seem surprising given the modern CPU. However, this position is a direct consequence of the GPU's age and performance tier. The RX 5700 XT, while a capable card in its day, is now outclassed by many newer offerings, and its benchmark scores reflect that. Its performance percentile is 68, meaning it outperforms 68% of all GPUs in the database, but it is the GPU that anchors this combo's overall standing in this specific game.

The CPU itself is a much stronger performer. The Ryzen 7 9700X sits in the 89th percentile for all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 36029 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. It is a mere 0.2% faster than the Intel Core i5-14500HX and 0.4% slower than the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H. This indicates that the processor is not the limiting factor. The combo's rank is, therefore, a reflection of the GPU's lower standing. The data shows a clear disparity: a high-end CPU paired with a mid-range GPU results in a combo that is ranked by the GPU's performance ceiling in this GPU-intensive title.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 2560x1440 with High settings?

A: The measured average frame rate is 61.9 FPS, which is generally considered smooth for most players, though not high-refresh-rate territory.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in The Technomancer?

A: The data indicates it is not viable for smooth play at 4K. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is only 23.7 FPS. Even dropping to Low settings only raises the average to 48.1 FPS, which is still below the 60 FPS target many players prefer.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The difference is substantial. The average frame rate at 1080p with Low settings is 141.3 FPS, while at Ultra it drops to 71.2 FPS. This represents a performance hit of just over 50% when moving to the highest preset.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X or the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT the bottleneck in this game?

A: The benchmark data strongly points to the GPU as the bottleneck. The CPU's performance is very high, with an average benchmark score of 36029, and it is closely matched with rivals like the Intel Core i5-14500HX and Intel Core Ultra 9 185H. The GPU's performance percentile of 68 is much lower, and the frame rates scale predictably with resolution changes, which is a classic sign of a GPU limit.

Q: What are the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and Passmark G3D scores for this GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT scores 2134 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test and 16277 in the Passmark G3D test. These scores place it near rivals like the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile and Intel Arc A350M.

Q: What is the boost clock speed of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT?

A: The GPU's boost clock is listed as 1905 MHz, with a base clock of 1605 MHz and a game clock of 1755 MHz.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data represents the measured average frame rates for this specific CPU and GPU combination in The Technomancer.

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers strong performance across all presets. With Low settings, the average FPS is 141.3. This drops to 107.9 FPS at Medium settings, and further to 92.4 FPS at High. The most demanding preset, Ultra, still yields a respectable average of 71.2 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the strain on the GPU becomes more apparent. The Low preset averages 93.8 FPS, which is still very playable. The Medium preset achieves 72.4 FPS, and the High preset averages 61.9 FPS. At this resolution, the Ultra preset drops to an average of 44.6 FPS, which may be too inconsistent for some players.

At 3840x2160, the RX 5700 XT is clearly overburdened. The Low preset averages 48.1 FPS, while the Medium preset falls to 37.9 FPS. The High preset manages only 35 FPS, and the Ultra preset bottoms out at 23.7 FPS. These results show that 4K gaming is not a practical option for this combo, regardless of the settings chosen.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is the defining component in this system's gaming performance. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, which is a significant asset for a game like The Technomancer. However, the card's architecture and clock speeds ultimately determine its limits. With a base clock of 1605 MHz and a boost clock of 1905 MHz, the card's compute capability is fixed. Its 9.754 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 64 ROPs are responsible for the pixel throughput, but they are not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K with heavy settings.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate its mid-range position. Its Passmark G3D score of 16277 places it in the 68th percentile of all GPUs, and its performance is nearly identical to the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (0.1% slower) and the Intel Arc A350M (0.3% faster). In DirectX 12, its Passmark score is 64, which is lower than its DirectX 11 score of 116, suggesting the card performs better under older APIs. The data shows that the RX 5700 XT, with its 8 GB VRAM and RDNA 1.0 architecture, provides a solid foundation for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but its role in this combo is to be the definitive performance limiter at 4K. The Ryzen 7 9700X, with its 32 MB of L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth, is never the constraint; it simply feeds data to a GPU that cannot fully utilize its potential at higher resolutions.